Having lost to a last heat decider to Belle Vue at Brandon last night, the Bees travelled to the south coast for tonights meeting with Eastbourne.
Again tracking rider replacement for the injured Christian Hefenbrock, the Bees welcomed back Josh Auty to reserve, with the hope that tonight might see a change in fortune which sees the Bees as the only Elite league side to not register a point so far this season and up against an Eastbourne side who, like the Bees, had yet to win a meeting.
The Eagles swept into an early 4 point lead after the first two heats, which was extended to 6 points after the end of the 4th heat.
A fighting performance from Edward Kennett, Rory Schlein and Ben Barker in heats 6 and 7 brought the on the night scores level at 21 each, but over the following 3 heats the Eagles were the stronger and opened up an 8 point advantage.
The Bees battled to prevent the scoreline getting further away from them, whilst looking for an opportunity to close the gap, with a Bees 4-2 in heat 13 making the progressive score 42-36 to the Eagles and providing an opportunity to take the match to a last heat decider.
Sadly the Bees duo of Ben Barket and Brent Werner could not make an impression on the Eagles pair in heat 14, with the resulting 5-1 for the home side guaranteeing the first win for the Eagles and extended the Bees run of defeats to 6.
The final score was Eatbourne Eagles 50 Coventry Bees 40, with the Bees scorers as below.
1 Chris Harris 2, 3, 3, 1 = 9
2 Christian Hefenbrock r/r (BW 0, JA 0, BB 2, JA 0 )
3 Rory Schlein 1, 3, 2, 3, 0 = 9
4 Ben Barker 3, 2', 2, 0, 1 = 8+1
5 Edward Kennett 1, 3, X, 3, 3 = 10
6 Josh Auty 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0 = 1
7 Brent Werner 0, 2, 0, 0, 0 = 2